Pharmaceutical Production in China

Core Messages

• The opportunities for foreign companies are promising and range from marketing and selling generic and proprietary drugs locally, sourcing of chemical substances, setting up local production facilities and conducting research and development.
• Not only low salaries but also more suitable environments for clinical trials and low bureaucratic hurdles with respect to research and development account for an Attractive location.
• With the ongoing extension of the healthcare system, an improved distribution of drugs through retail stores and an overall higher income of the population, the possibilities for pharmaceutical companies are increasing steadily.
• The introduction of the GMP standard, which has now been fully established, has awoken the interest of China’s pharmaceutical enterprises in the processing of export opportunities; which is also being actively supported by the authorities.
• Due to the increasing importance of patented drugs and the growth of OTC drugs it is expected that China's pharmaceutical market will grow by 13-16% annually until 2008 and develop into the world's largest by 2010.
• Foreign pharma companies should, if not already present in China, now contemplate on setting up production facilities in China in order to gain a future share in such a large and fast growing pharmaceutical market.
• Costs for establishing a manufacturing or research facility are substantially lower than in Western countries but are on par with high quality standards.
• The setting-up time for a production in Europe takes at least 24 months; in China the time needed for setting up the same production only takes around 15 months.
• Operational costs are at least 30% lower than in Western countries, such as lower wages also for highly qualified workers; lower costs for energy and raw materials; short and inexpensive clinical trials.